GIs Remember

Dan Evers - Dachau

Dan Evers, from New Jersey,
enlisted in the National Guard in 1940 and
was assigned to active duty in 1941. He served
in the 286th Combat Engineer Battalion until
the end of the war. He went overseas in 1944,
participating in campaigns in France
and Germany.

"I hadn't heard much
about concentration camps. My unit arrived
in Dachau
in April 1945, quite by accident. I was shocked
at what I saw. The place was a mess. Bodies
and bones were lying around. The gas chamber
door was closed, but the ovens were still
open. There was a sign in German overhead
which said: 'Wash your hands after work.'
I saw more dead than living.

I was there only a few hours, and my strongest
recollection is the smell of death. I don't
recall meeting any living Jews.

I stayed in the area until the end of 1945
and had numerous occasions to speak to people
living near Dachau. They always claimed to
be innocent.

The whole thing was a traumatic experience
for me. This thing should not have happened.
I still don't think people have learned anything.

The photographs that I took at Dachau illustrate
the horrors and inhumane treatment of a group
of human beings whose only crime was being
Jewish. The photographs document the brutality
and bestiality that man can inflict on his
fellow man, the genocide of a people."